Every Little Helps or Fiddling Whilst Rome Burns?

Exercise is healthy. Competitive sport entertains many people, as well as making a minority (elite participants and owners) very rich. It's consequently difficult to evaluate the likely impact of Sport England's directive that continued funding will depend on their decarbonising and better protecting the environment (https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/oct/11/sport-england-tells-sports-fight-climate-crisis-or-youll-get-no-funding). Every year, Sport England invests more than £300m of public money in a wide range of designated sports. Sporting bodies have been warned, by the funding body's chair, their future funding will depend on showing they are 'fighting the climate crisis'. Current examples include better maintained swimming pools; phasing out artificial grass surfaces; replacing lighting with LEDs and installing electric catering ovens. These changes would all produce modest reductions in 'greenhouse gas' emissions. They are puny, however, when compared to the, often enormous carbon footprints, of individual sports. Most of competitive sport's emissions are generated by building facilities and transport requirements. For example, flying individuals, teams, equipment and their supporters to international events, generates substantial emissions. The 'business model' of most competitive sports is to maximise their activities. More events and greater numbers of supporters, means having a bigger impact. It will be interesting to see whether the new directive only results in 'greenwash' or something more substantial.